The Unconstitutionality of the Regents Prayer

In 1962, New York approved a piece of legislation that encouraged but not required students in its public schools to begin every day with the Pledge of Allegiance and a non-denominational prayer. Five families of ten pupils led by a Jewish man named Stephen Ingal filed a lawsuit against William Vitell, the school district's president. The plaintiffs insisted that the official prayer both contradicted their family's religious belief systems and violated the establishment clause of the United States Constitution. By a majority vote of six to one, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state-sponsored school prayer was unconstitutional.